This blog is black because I join the fellow bloggers to protest against Kerals.com's highhandedness. I support Injipennu's courageous act against them.
I am reading John Grisham’s ‘The Appeal.’ A chemical company dumps toxic waste into a small town’s water supply and makes the town a ‘cancer cluster.’ The locals fight a long legal battle and get a verdict against the conglomerate. The company plays many dirty games to get the verdict reversed in the appeal.
The DDT factory by Hindustan Insecticides Ltd (HIL), manufacturing DDT and Endosulfan, is located in the industrial belt around the Eloor and Edayar villages near Aluva, Ernakulam. One of my father’s friends used to work at this factory and we once visited him. Since it was his duty hours, his son took us to the factory and we met him outside the gate. The smell of DDT was quite strong there. That was some 20 years back. I still remember the heaviness of the air.
Shaji’s article explains in detail how all kinds of life in the entire area is severely affects by the factory and its product. Well-water has become unfit for drinking, large tracts of land have turned uncultivable, many species of fish have disappeared from the waterbodies and several others are threatened or endangered, and so on. Worst of all, incidence of breast cancer and complications related to reproduction are increasing in the region. Ironically, this was revealed by a health survey conducted this year by the Kerala government.
DDT is classified as one of the most hazardous chemicals and its use is banned in
According to an article on DDT in www.scienceclarified.com, DDT is used today in such African nations as
In December 2000, in a convention organized by the United Nations Environment Program, 122 nations agreed to a treaty banning twelve very toxic chemicals. Included among the twelve was DDT. However, the treaty allowed the use of DDT to combat malaria until other alternatives become available. Before it can take effect, the treaty must be ratified by 50 of the nations that agreed to it in principle.
So these poor nations have no choice than to continue using DDT. And our government is cashing in on this, but at the cost of the health of its own people and environment.
Shaji’s article says that the studies conducted by various expert organizations have confirmed the hazard caused by DDT in the region. But the government has refused to shut down the factory. Instead, the factory management refutes the claim of the activists by saying that employees, who are in close contact with the chemical, are not affected. The union and the workers support management’s argument, fearing loss of job.
Read the full article here …
So what can we do as people here?
If the activists can take the workers into confidence by developing an alternative for their current job, I think there are chances that the pressure on the government will mount. It may also come a few steps down and maybe either close down the factory, or switch to another product and implement better effluent treatment processes.
These are my thoughts as an armchair revolutionary. :-)
However, I remember a case study on Effective Deployment of Quality Management Systems, Implementation of Orderliness and Cleanliness in Process Plants by Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Ltd for the ‘Best Manufacturing Practices’ award by Frost & Sullivan in 2005. It was about how the company transformed the factory premises and the region where the highly polluting factory is located into a green belt. I don’t remember the details, but it’s an example worth emulating.
Holi is one festival that can go awry. My initial memories on Holi were not so good.
Fast-forward to 2005. When my first Holi in Mumbai approached, I heard about terrifying incidents of people getting injured with water balloons, stones, acid, etc, thrown at them in the guise Holi celebrations, that too much before the actual day. That year, on the eve of Holi, I fled the office before any celebration started. I also reached home without any colours and more importantly, unscathed. But when I entered my housing society, a water balloon whizzed past my nose before hitting the ground. I escaped, though I got a shock. Looking up to the top floors I muttered some choicest expletives and ran home. I didn’t come out until the morning after Holi.
2008. I had a narrow escape again. Another water balloon, another housing society; I was walking along the footpath, a few days before Holi. I crashed right in front, missing me by a few steps. I didn’t walk that way until a week after Holi.
Thus for me, Holi thoughts were nightmarish until I celebrated it with friends this year. We went to Navgaon near Alibag. I was smeared with colours (non-toxic ones) the moment I met my friends at the Gateway of India. And it was fun.
We had more fun at Navgaon beach. I’ve never seen a more muddy beach and sea. Still we were splashing in the water, playing ball games and finally smearing colours on each other.
At the end, one of us was given a mud therapy also.
Photo courtesy: DnyaneshA thorough shower, a delicious lunch, a siesta on the hammock at the farmhouse where we stayed, and a walk at twilight at the beach and along the village roads made the day.
Photo courtesy: Dnyanesh
Next day I sang, "It's Holi-Holi re ..." and went home with some really nice memories on Holi.
Still I wonder why do people hurt others even during a festival? Instead of playing with colours, why throw acid, stones, dirt, etc?
I named the blog Coloured Canvas, but I guess it had only shades of black so far. All my posts were too serious as if they would change the world. :-)
Now I am planning to add some colours …
It's a year since I wrote the last post - "Work less, Earn less, Consume less". Recently when I told (half jokingly) a friend about this "less, less, less" theory, he became slightly upset and advised me, "We are in the prime of our lives. Instead of thinking about earning less, we should earn moderately and maybe give our bit to the needy." He is right. Earning less is actually relative. When I read the article on which I based the post, I think the key point that struck me was the mad rush for making money, without realising what all we missed in the meanwhile.
After writing the post, even I went on earning more. And spending more. I’ve now quit the job, not because I was earning more, but to relax and explore new things.
Thinking about the looming recession and food crisis, I feel now is the time to implement the "consume less" policy. Or at least avoid wastage. Each one of us can do our bit; it’ll make a difference, as the old adage goes – A unit saved is a unit produced.
See what fellow bloggers say about consumption and wastage.
‘It’s not a 9-5 job’ – Many so-called challenging jobs have this point in their profile. Of course, you’re paid hefty salaries, and naturally you are expected to put in long hours. Today, 18-hr days have become normal. Somebody I know asked her husband when he came home early one day, “What??? Have you lost your job???” Strange indeed are the ironies of human life! Why do you earn more, when you can’t enjoy it? But didn’t someone say,
"Enjoyment is relative?" Yes, but still …
I came across this article in Countercurrents.org – ‘Why working less is better for the globe’. It talks about the Americans’ dogged pursuit of fatter pay packets, how it indirectly chokes up our planet, and about a very small percentage of people raising their voice against this mad pursuit.
Excerpts from the article…
"We (Americans) now seem more determined than ever to work harder and produce more stuff, which creates a bizarre paradox: We are proudly breaking our backs to decrease the carrying capacity of the planet," says Conrad Schmidt, an internationally known social activist and founder of the Work Less Party, a Vancouver-based initiative aimed at moving to a 32-hour work week…
"As a society, we're working exponentially hard to decrease sustainability and it's making us miserable -- just look at how antidepressants are on the rise," he says. "In order to reduce our ecological footprint, we have to take working less very seriously."
Unsurprisingly, the United States is the world's largest polluter. Housing a mere 5 percent of the world's population, it accounts for 22 percent of its fossil fuel consumption, 50 percent of its solid waste, and, on average, each citizen consumes 53 times more goods than a person in China, according to the environmental nonprofit, Sierra Club.
"Materialism is driven by an underlying sense of insecurity,” says Kasser…“We don't know our neighbors and suffer from high divorce rates; our social safety nets have been dismantled; we have no mandatory overtime laws and minimal vacation. All these work to create an underlying sense of insecurity, and we need to break out of that cycle,” he says.
"If you want to protect the environment, you have to consume less, which means you have to produce less, and you have to work less. We have to keep the message positive -- our standard of living will improve hugely. I think people are starting to make the connection."
Read the full article here …
http://www.countercurrents.org/colwell210507.htm
Aren’t we also going the same route? Work more, earn more, consume more…
So much talk about work-life balance… Unfortunately, not all of us are lucky enough to make our passion double up as job too. And, many of us have forgotten about our original passions.
In many cases, what the US has achieved in a span of 10-15 years, India has bridged the gap in a few years. Similarly, will we bridge this gap also fast? Oh sure, we are fast catching up. :-)
A State Health Minister says, “I cannot be expected to know about the state of affairs in all the state-run hospitals.” A State Forest Minister says, “I cannot stop tree felling in all the reserved forests.”
These are the words of people who have been given power to protect and maintain a certain asset or service of the state. They have the power, but apparently they are not aware of their responsibilities.
In the first case, 23 infants died due to labour-room infection in the state-run SAT hospital in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. A seemingly indifferent Health Minister, P K Sreemati, washed her hands off saying there were quite a few state-run hospitals, and she could not be responsible for what’s happening in all these hospitals.
I understand … But then, why is she the State Health Minister in the first place?
To quote the Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Anbumani Ramdoss on the same issue, "This is a state issue and it's entirely the problem of the state government. The Kerala government will handle the issue. The incident happened in a state government hospital and health is a state issue."
Fine, then why should there be a Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare? May be he’ll take care of the Family Welfare part.
Check out the news here
In the second case, large-scale illegal tree felling in Assam’s reserved forests was reported by a news channel. When brought to the notice of the State Minister of Forest, he shamelessly declared in front of the camera that it is impossible to prevent such incidences. Great! Another case of ignorance or feigned ignorance of one’s responsibilities!
I can understand his plight. How can he take responsibility for such a vast forest area? Why don’t we divide it into parts and assign one minister for each?
Power comes with responsibility. There is no such thing as power without responsibility – or so I thought! :-)
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